› added 4 years ago

217

TIL many people would prefer administering electric shocks to themselves instead of being left alone with their thoughts.

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via reddit.com

x6LBk TIL that a town in Florida got the nickname “Nub City” in the 50s and 60s because the residents learned they could get insurance money by amputating their own limbs.
5x1r TIL pirates kidnapped a 22 year old Julius Caesar. His charisma led the pirates to treat him as a friend. He insisted they double his ransom, which they did. He said he would crucify them when free, and it was laughed off as a playful joke. Upon release he raised a fleet, returned and crucified them
xV9l5 TIL that the world's primary source of low-background steel (steel produced before nuclear detonations) is the sunken remains of the German High Seas Fleet, which was scuttled after WWI to prevent it being divided amongst the Allies.
d8XdB TIL Edward Dickinson Baker was serving as a U.S. Senator when the U.S. Civil War broke out and re-joined the Army as a colonel. He was killed in battle and remains the only sitting U.S. senator ever to be killed in a military engagement.
8eQGK TIL that during the War of 1812, Britain sent out a fake letter in Detroit that claimed they had 5,000 Native American warriors (they had about a tenth of that) and ensured their US enemy obtained this memo. It led to the US surrendering in Detroit, without a single British death.